Tech City UK picked just 7 startups outside London for a national company growth programme with space for 33 firms

Government quango Tech City UK highlighted just how dominant it thinks London’s tech sector is compared to the rest of the UK when it announced a list of its 33 British startups to watch on Thursday.

The organisation, which receives over £2 million of taxpayer’s money each year to promote and support tech companies across the UK, picked just seven early stage tech companies outside the capital to join its Upscale programme this year. That’s less than two-thirds of the total cohort.

While London is home to more tech startups than any other UK city, startups in the likes of Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, and Bristol are developing technology that is often more interesting and revolutionary. Cybersecurity startup Darktrace was set up in Cambridge, for example, while Oxford spawned two AI startups that were acquired by Google’s AI lab DeepMind in 2014.

We have again seen a bias towards London-based tech firms in TechCity’s Upscale programme,” said Stuart Clarke, festival director of the Leeds Digital Festival, in an email to Business Insider. “Is this because we have fewer suitable firms in the North or because Tech City is inherently biased towards London? I think it’s definitely the latter and there needs to be more emphasis on getting northern tech firms involved.”

Gerard Grech, chief executive of Tech City UK, seemed to be happy with the representation of startups outside London. “It’s great to see so many regions and sectors represented in the cohort, demonstrating the great diversity this country has when it comes to digital technology,” he said in a statement.

Grech was also pleased with the number of companies with female founders Tech City UK selected — four out of the 33.

“It’s particularly great to see four fantastic female founders — Tania Boler, Tamara Rajah, Tugce Bulut and Emily Brooke — amongst the new intake but the industry needs to work harder to make sure that women are getting to senior roles in the sector,” he said.

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